caferati Listings 12: Crossposted

Caferati Listings 12

1.
A Delhi Press magazine wants freelance writers

Delhi Press, India's largest magazine publishing house, is seeking freelance writers for a new fortnightly magazine to be launched in January.

The magazine, Caravan, will be modelled after magazines like The New Republic and The New Yorker—a text-heavy magazine dedicated to high-caliber, long-form journalism. Caravan's primary focus will be on domestic and international politics and social issues, with secondary emphasis on topics such as arts and culture, travel, sports, science and technology, environment, education and business. Any story idea is on the table, provided it would be of interest and importance to to a socially-conscious, intellectually-curious Indian reader.

Caravan also has at least one opening for a fulltime editor.

For any questions or information, contact associate editor Ben Frumin at ben DOT frumin AT delhipress DOT in or bfrumin AT gmail DOT com.

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2.
The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize - an update

An update of the listing in Edition 10. The complete listing is:

The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is a cash award of one lakh rupees.
A 3-member panel of judges will shortlist entries. The 2008 panel of judges includes William Dalrymple and Kamila Shamsie.
We invite entries in the following genres: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction (travel writing, autobiography, biography, and narrative journalism) and drama.

Open to first-time authors of all ages.
The book must be published between June 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.
Only books published in India are eligible.
Publications must be in English or translated into English from an Indian language.
Vanity press publications are ineligible.
Deadline for entries is July 15, 2008.

Jeet Thayil will be happy to answer specific questions. Please email jeet DOT thayil AT gmail DOT com. Or leave a query, with your email address, here .

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3.
Undercover Utopia invites submissions

From an email:

We have launched our imprint Undercover Utopia. The first book, November Rain, came out last month. The next one is due out next month.

As on 15th September we have opened our doors to new submissions. The website is undercoverpro.net. Look for the submission tab while browsing around, or head for sitemap. We are offering some of the best terms to writers in India, though we are looking for writers from around the world. Two US writers have already submitted their complete illustrated children's books to us, and we have already signed on one Caferati member as our next novelist. His book will be out in December this year. We don't ask our writers to organize/spend on their book launches unlike all other Indian publishers. We are accepting submissions in any genre but the book has to be a novel—no short stories—a novel with a very strong plot.

Submitted by Abhigyan Jha of Undercover Utopia.

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4.
Platform magazine wants a features writer.

Platform is looking for a Features Writer interested in the creative arts for feature-based columns. Those interested please contact us at info AT platform-mag DOT com and/or ssiganporia AT gmail DOT com.

Hat tip: Danish Husain

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5.
Got a dog story?

Excerpted from an email

I am now compiling a database of real-life incidents in which Pariah/Pariah-mix dogs have proved to be good watchdogs. The data will be used by canine behaviour consultant Shirin Merchant, the WSD adoption programme and the Indian Pariah Dog Club. It will also be available online for public reference.

If you know of any street dogs/building compound dogs/pet Pariah/pet Pariah-mix dogs who have prevented burglaries and other crimes, please mail the story to wsdindia AT gmail DOT com with a copy to rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail.com. If you did not personally witness the event, the story must be from a reliable and named source. Please mention at least an appoximate date, the location where it occurred, and whatever information you have about the dog (age / gender / description / etc).

The Welfare Of Stray Dogs(WSD) Tel: +91 22 23733433. E:mail: wsd AT wsdindia DOT org or wsdindia AT gmail DOT com

Hat-tip: Priya Pathiyan.

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6.
State Times wants writers

A new English daily newspaper, State Times, is looking for part-time or full-time writers, news associates, investigative journalists, etcetera. Please write to editor DOT kumar AT gmail DOT com

Submitted by Ajay Kumar via the Caferati forum.

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7.
Citizens For Peace wants submissions for its Peace Tree

2nd October is no longer just an important date on the Indian calendar. It is now the day on which people across the globe will observe the United Nations Day of Non-Violence.

On this special day, Citizens for Peace, in partnership with Times of India, is planning a Peace Mela - an evening dedicated to creative expressions of the striving for peace through music, song, poetry, dance, drama, films and more. The Peace Mela will be held in Mumbai (at the Horniman Circle/Asiatic Library space ) on the evening of 2nd October. It will be a five hour long gathering of well-known performing artists as well as unknown young talent.

You are invited to participate, with poems, prose pieces, posters, photographs etc., all on the theme of peace. The Horniman Garden area will be used to display poems, photographs and prose pieces that people have sent in.
Poems: Max 150 words
Prose pieces: Max 250 words
Photographs (prints): A3 or A4 sizes
Entries to be sent by either email or post.
By email to: meghann AT mdiworld DOT com.
By courier/post to: EMDI, IES Management College, 4th Floor, Opposite Lilavati Hospital, Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai 4000 50. Ph: 26550808/26427171
Please keep copies of whatever you send. Entries will not be returned.
The last date for sending in the entries is 28th Sept.

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8.
Reminders from past issues

- The international music magazine we mentioned in Edition 11 is still open to pitches from writers
- Siyahi is still acepting submissions (Edition 11)
- The Times / Chicken House Children's Fiction deadline is 17th November (Edition 11)
- NaNoWriMo (Edition 11) sign-ups start 1st October and stay open until the end of the month
- If you have a book coming out up to 30th June next year, remember The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize (Edition 10)
- Osians may still be looking for authors to represent (Edition 10).
- Pinstorm is still open to writer CVs (Edition 10)
- The TFA Creative Writing Awards (Edition 9) deadline is 20th October 2007.
- IFC-FT Essay Competition 2007 (Edition 8) deadline is close! 30th September 2007.
- Every Tuesday (Edition 8) is still open to story ideas.
- The Scian SciFi Short Story contest (Edition 6) deadline is around the corner! 30th September 2007.

Joy and jello,

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin

for Caferati

Caferati Listings 11

Crossposted from Caferati Listings

A slightly longer gap this time. Apologies. We've been a bit tied up with work, deadlines and, not least, getting Caferati's First Annual Celebrating Shakti Bhatt Workshop going. (And if you're in Delhi on the 30th September, do join us. Details at the link.)
1.
Can you write about music?

This came in via email:

An international music magazine is looking for writers, contributors and photographers for its India/South Asia edition. Besides definitive, edgy, incisive writing on music and musicians, which forms the core, the magazine will also cover national affairs (features, profiles), technology, trends, fashion, books and movies. This is a heads-up for prospective writers/contributors in all metros and the Northeast. There will be a web edition as well, and this message is also a heads-up for that crew. If you're interested, please email sudeep dot chakravarti at gmail dot com with your interest and specs. Peace.

Submitted by Sudeep Chakravarti.

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2.
The Times / Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition

An excerpt from the web page:

Have you a manuscript hidden at the back of the wardrobe? Have you been scribbling in a shed at the bottom of the garden? Have you been making up brilliant bedtime stories? Now's your chance to see your name on the cover of a book!
The Times and Chicken House are launching a competition to find a great undiscovered children's writer. Our judges will choose one winner, whose novel will be published by Chicken House.

Your submissions must be full-length manuscript in English, of no more than 80,000 words accompanied by a brief synopsis, plot-plan and a letter of submission explaining the book's appeal to children . No picture books and graphic novels.
Note the eligibility criteria:

You must not have published a book in any form, in any country, whether fiction or non-fiction. In this case a "book" refers to a printed work of which you are the author. If your work has only appeared in newspapers, magazines, story or essay collections, or in electronic format (ie online) then you are eligible to enter.

The Prize
An offer of a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House, which shall be subject to negotiation and completion between Chicken House and the winner.
Entries must be by post (email submissions will be rejected) to The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT marked Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition.
Deadline: Saturday 17th November 2007
Complete Terms and conditions and Submission Guidelines here. Make sure to read them.
More about the contest here .

Hat-tip, Christina Daniels.

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3.
Siyahi wants authors, poets, researchers, translators

A note from Siyahi:

Siyahi, a Literary Consultancy, is working for promoting and managing creativity and taking the Indian word, to the world. We are forum for authors, poets, researchers, translators and publishers to evolve and expand the scope for Indian literature. We bring to publishers, the talent they are looking for. We are working with all genres and with all languages, with publishers in India and abroad. For submissions please contact mitakapur at siyahi dot in.

Submitted by Mita Kapur, who is, among other things, a long-time Caferati member, co-coordinator of our Jaipur chapter , and good friend. Good luck with this, Mita.

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4.
Translators wanted for an anthology of Dalit poetry.

Dr. K. Purushotham, Associate Professor of English, Kakatiya University, is bringing out an anthology of Dalit poetry.

I am planning to bring out an anthology of Dalit Poetry in English translation from different languages of India. This task cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of the translators from other languages. Therefore, I have planned to bring out the proposed anthology by associating an editor for each of the languages. Those interested in translating and/or editing the Dalit poems from their languages to English are requested to associate with this project.

He is looking for people to translate from all the major Indian languages—except Telugu—into English. If you're interested, please write to Dr P at purushotham_ku at hotmail dot com.

Information from this post on blogbharti.

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5.
Come November, it's NaNoWriMo

Hm. We don't know whether this quite fits into Caferati Listings, seeing as y'all are seriously talented, writers who sweat over their craft, and the NaNoWriMo web page says, "Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together." But what the heck, if it gets you to take the finger out and start writing, it's a good thing.
NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) gets people to register, and then spend the month of November hammering out a 50,000 word novel. From 21 participants in 1999, NaNoWrMo has grown hugely popular; there were 79,000 participants last year, and nearly 13,000 of them actually finished their 50,000 words. To quote the site: "They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists."
Please note that there is no prize or publishing contract offered. All who finish the 50k will be "added to our hallowed Winner's Page, and receive a handsome winner's certificate and web icon." And while it must be noted that their FAQ page lists 14 published novels that started out at NaNoWriMo, it is also pertinent that that number is out of some 35,000 winners over the years.
Sign-ups begin 1st October, 2007, and the writing begins November 1.
What it's all about here.
How it works here.
Frequently Asked Questions.

Hat-tip: Vineeta Malkani.

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6.
Reminders from past issues

- If you have a book coming out up to 30th June next year, remember The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize ( Edition 10)
- Osians may still be looking for authors to represent (Edition 10 ).
- Pinstorm is still open to writer CVs (Edition 10)
- The TFA Creative Writing Awards (Edition 9) deadline is 20th October 2007.
- IFC-FT Essay Competition 2007 (Edition 8 ) deadline is 30th September 2007.
- Every Tuesday (Edition 8 ) is still open to story ideas.
- The Scian SciFi Short Story contest (Edition 6 ) deadline is 30th September 2007.

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Feedback welcome at caferati at gmail dot com. This newsletter depends hevily on your suggestions and submissions. Please do keep them coming in. Details are at http://groups.google.com/group /Caferati-Listings/web/FAQs

We'd especially like to know if you have applied for or entered any of the stuff that has appeared in Caferati Listings. And of course, if you have got a job, got published, won something or generally improved your life in some way, puhleeze tell us. Such knowledge helps us get through the long, lonely winter nights.

Luck, love, and lozenges to you,

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin

Caferati Announcements

Crossposted from Caferati Listings

Edition 9

1. A new book prize

2. A new literary agency

3. An internet marketing solutions company wants copywriters

4. A news portal wants an Associate Editor in Bombay

5. Reminders

1. The Shakti Bhatt First Book prize

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation and the British Council invite entries in the following genres for the inaugural prize: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction (travel writing, autobiography and narrative journalism) and drama.

The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is a cash award of one lakh rupees. A 3-member panel of judges will shortlist 6 books published between 1 June 2007 and 30 June 2008. Only books published in India are eligible. Publications must be in English or translated into English from an Indian language.

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation is a non-profit trust.

or more information please contact: alice.cicoliniATSIGNin.britishcouncil.org

From Rwituja Mookherjee of the British Council

2. Osian's launches a literary agency

Osian's Literary Agency is always looking for high quality works of fiction and general non-fiction (biography/memoir, narrative travel writing, current affairs and contemporary issues), and represents authors for the sale of rights to their work in India and all major overseas markets, including the UK, US and Europe. The focus is on writers based in, originating from or writing about, the Indian subcontinent; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

For more information on the agency, how to submit your work etc, email kavitaATSIGNosians.com, or log onto our website www.osians.com.

From Kavita Bhanot of Osian's Literary Agency

3. Pinstorm wants copywriters

From Pinstorm's Creative Director

Richard Clayderman, John Lord, Louis Banks, Ray Manzarek - Now if only their Keyboards generated Prose…

Adept in grammar, ability to develop interest in a wide range of products/services and communicate effusively about them, plenty of surfing experience, the yen to prove your marketplace effectiveness as a Copywriter by following the Response statistics, interest in drafting text messages within a tight format, the versatility to write landing-page copy which is persuasive without being formulaic, enthusiasm for creating tiny Flash-sequences that are catchy and promote a brand - perhaps all of this with a couple of years' experience as well.

We must either think this is our lucky day or that this place is El Dorado!! One thing's for sure - Pinstorm Technologies is the fastest growing Internet marketing solutions Co. in Asia (as accoladed by Red Herring Magazine in its Top Picks). ESOP for us is not something to do with fables only - exercise your option here to translate your words into wallet-fillers!

Spell-check your mail before sending it to briandATSIGNpinstorm.com

Contact: Brian D'souza, Human Resources, briand@pinstorm.com , 26480520 / 2648853More about Pinstorm at www.pinstorm.com

4. A news portal want an Associate Editor

Associate Editor based in Bombay office of a global news portal focused on environment and engineering. The candidate should have minimum three years experience reporting, editing under deadline, preferably in daily newspapers. Knowledge of science and engineering is preferred. Should have sound editing skills and ability to fact-check, report and develop copy based on raw information. Interested candidates may email resume and clips to deerparkATSIGNgmail.com

The interview will be conducted Sept. 7, 8 and 9 in Mumbai. Information courtesy Anita Vasudeva.

5. Reminders

1. The TFA Creative Writing Awards ( Caferati Listings Edition 9) deadline is 20 October 2007.

2. Submissions to Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul series ( Edition 9) close on 15th September.

3. IFC-FT Essay Competition 2007 ( Edition 8) deadline is September 30th.

4. Every Tuesday ( Edition 8) is still open to story ideas.

5. The Scian SciFi short story contest ( Edition 6) deadline is September 30th.

Caferati Blog, Forum
Our other newsletters and local newsgroups

Caferati Updates, Caferati-Contests

Active City Chapters: Ahmedabad, Bombay, Bangalore, Calcutta, Delhi , Dubai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lahore, Lucknow, Madras, Nagpur, Pune, Singapore.

Works in Progress: Boston , Goa, Indore, Jodhpur, London, San Francisco Bay Area.

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin

Edition 8

1. Creative writing awards - call for entries

2. "Chicken Soup" stories wanted

3. A few reminders from past Listings editions

1. Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing Awards 2008 - Call for Entries

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) invites entries for its third annual awards for young Indian writers in English. Two cash awards of Rs. 25,000 each will be given in January 2008.

BUT: If you are less than 18 and older than 30 on 1 January 2008, or live outside India, read no further!

ALSO: The spirit of the Toto Awards is to identify promise and encourage young talent. Therefore, do not submit an entry if you are already an established writer.

TFA is looking for entries in a variety of genres -- the novel, short stories, play scripts and poetry. The submissions should ideally be not more than 10,000 words. Pieces of short fiction; an extract from a novel or play script; or between five and ten poems are recommended norms. Sensible combinations of the above are acceptable within the word limit.

Deadline: 20 October 2007.

Entries should be sent in soft e-mail copy to totofundstheartsATSIGNyahoo.com as well as in hard copy form to:

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA)

H 301 Adarsh Gardens

8th Block, 47th Cross

Jayanagar

Bangalore 560 082

Phone: 080-26548139

The fine print

Entries must be accompanied by a signed statement confirming the applicant's date of birth, whether the applicant's work has been published in print (give details), and also affirming that the submitted work is original.

Submitted material will not be returned.

The decision of the TFA jury is final and cannot be contested in any forum.

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) is a not-for-profit public trust set up in memory of Angirus 'Toto' Vellani, who was intensely passionate about music, literature and films.

Information courtesy Arundhati Ghosh

2. "Chicken Soup" stories wanted

You've heard of, if not read, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Well, there's now going to be a series for the Indian Soul. The following (edited) from an email:

Chicken Soup is essentially a compilation series of hundreds of heart-felt stories of real-life experiences about love, courage, awareness and awe that has touched the minds and souls of millions of readers.

I am currently compiling individual experiences for the 'Chicken Soup for the Indian soul' series for Westland publishing house. The book will carry the brand name of Chicken soup and the publishing house believes it will surely be a success.

I welcome experiences.

Here is the format:

It could be on any person / event / incident which made an impact on you. This impact could be a change in the way you thought or lived, or improved performance, or in making you a better person, more more courageous, persistent, optimistic or positive, or it may have broadened your horizons. If you think it is worth speaking about, I am willing to listen.

The instances could be specific or general.

Some broad topics:

Love - It could be love between you and your spouse, parents, children, friends, strangers you met and connected with. Or an episode of love you have witnessed.

Understanding love

Learning to love yourself

Parenting

Overcoming obstacles - stories on how you persisted with something
Someone who made you believe in yourself - how, what specific things did s/he say or not say.

Giving without expectations

Forgiveness

These are just starters. The subject could be anything; as long as the story puts a smile in the readers heart.

Note: The story should be in first person, with the contributor's name at the end.

Contributions can be between 500 and 1500 words.

Deadline: 15th September

Submit to: bharadiarakshaATSIGNhotmail.com with a cc to rakshabharadiaATSIGNgmail.com

Submitted by Raksha Bharadia, author of Me - A handbook for Life (Rupa & Co) and Roots and Wings - A handbook for parents (Rupa & Co).

3. Reminders

1. IFC-FT Essay Competition 2007 deadline September 30th.

2. Every Tuesday is still open to story ideas.

3. The Scian SciFi short story contest deadline is September 30th.

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin

1. IFC-FT Essay Competition 2007

The International Finance Corporation and the Financial Times invite entries to their annual essay contest about the role of the private sector in international development. The top prize is a US$20,000 cash award, and winning essays will be published on the IFC and FT web sites.

Entries will be accepted until September 30, 2007.

Application details; prize essays from previous year: http://www.ifc.org/competition

Information courtesy Mayank Rungta.

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2. Junior and mid-level correspondents

Reproduced from an email:

I am looking to recruit junior and mid-level correspondents (on a full time basis) at Magna's Bangalore bureau. The profile of work will involve writing stories for mainly Society, Savvy, Society Interiors and Savvy cook book and for Magna 5 other magazines - Stardust, Showtime, Health N Nutrition, Savvy fashion and glamour and Society World of Luxury, as and when the need arises. You can get a lowdown on all the magazines and their contents at www.magnamags.com

If you know of anyone looking for a change, please have them write me at anubijurATSIGNyahoo.com.

My contact details are below.

Anupama Bijur

Bureau Chief,

Magna Publishing Co Ltd,

1107, Barton Centre, MG Road,

Bangalore 560001

Ph; +91 80 25599646 /7/8, 25594604

Mob: + 91 98441 24290

Info forwarded by Manoj Vijayan of Marketing Edge Designs<http://www.marketingedgedesigns.com/>

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And this one's from Menka Shivdasani:

3. Looking for writers for a new arts and culture weekly

If writing about arts and culture is your forte, here's an interesting opportunity. Ace Publications is launching a weekly called Every Tuesday in mid-August, focusing on art, cinema, theatre, dance, literature and everything related to Indian culture. Mr Shashi Vyas, director of Pancham Nishad Creatives Pvt Ltd, one of the largest organizers of classical music concerts in the country, is the publisher, and the entire content has been outsourced to my company, The Source <http://www.editsource.com/>.If you are interested in doing in-depth interviews and features, write to Menka Shivdasani at everytuesday ATSIGNeditsource.com with your ideas.

Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin

Welcome 2007!

A warm (if somewhat belated) welcome to our new members, some of whom got sent invites to WIP today. WIP classes are in full swing, and we have learned numerous interesting things about each other. At least two of us for instance, are several thousand years old, and one is the sole possessor of the key to an ancient language, while another is a Tibetan princess, incognito.

Character sketches have been done, and one collective effort went like this.

A girl, let's call her Buchki, is the child of Jatra-playing parents and travels with them all over Bengal, hidning backstage to watch the performances when she's supposed to be in bed. Buchki's hero is a young boy who plays female roles, (since women do not act in the Jatra; Buchki's mother cooks, makes costumes and plays the dhol): she wants to grow up to be just like him. But he doesn't want to grow up, beause when he does, he won't be able to play women any more. So Buchki thinks up a plot to save him: she secretly takes his place.

ALSO:
Regarding WIPLash, do not despair. I am having to revert to original plan and shell out, provided the editors buck up and give me the disk (Hello? Wiz?). A thousand apologies that it has taken so long: we will do our utmost to make sure it reaches you when it gets out, so 2006 batch please mail me your addresses if you are now out of town.

Telegraph on ASU visit

Here is Romila's article on Melissa Pritchard and the ASU students who visited JU a few months back.

Next crop ready to be planted

I hear that 20 of you from UG3 signed up for this course. Have you read the guidelines on this blog? I mean, do you realise your writing hand is going to shrivel up and fall off at the end of it? ask the people who've done it all ready. Seriously, there will be a lot of writing (and not so much reading) in this course, and people who think it'll be an easy ride often can't keep up. Consider your options carefully.
Havign said that, the PG2s are welcome to sign up. I know their courses haven't been advertised yet, but that's coz we currently don't have a PG1, and we want them to have a bite at the apple as well. Here, however, PG1 doesn't come into the equation, so if they like PG2 can sign up for WIP now, or at the beginning of the next sem with the rest of the courses.

Beleaguered WIP Book: SOS!

Firstly, my apoplogies for the delay in publishing the WIP book. May I assure you this is not due to lack of diligence on the part of the editors. We have in fact finished editing it and are doing the layout. However, we are stumped for lack of money. As I mentioned a while ago, we had been given a grant by the UPE fund for students. However, this was withdrawn without explanation. We are now looking for sponsors. Eight and a half thousand rupees will produce a very basic book, but we would like to make it a little nicer than last time, with illustrations and better lamination. so we will need something like 15 thousand. With the CAS grant to the department ending, there's no hope of money from that quarter. It looks like all avenues are closed except for private sponsorship. Any ideas?

Sampurna Chattarji and Sharmistha Mohanty

These two young writers read from their work here on Monday 19 March 2007 (yesterday). Audience was unfortunately thin since there were meetings re Nandigram and other issues going on at the same time. Nevertheless Sharmistha read from her new book New Life (Roli) and Sampurna from her book of poems, Sight May Strike You Blind (Sahitya Akademi). Both were very good, especially the latter.

In other news, we now have all the material for WIPLash. Our editors have been a bit distracted by recent events (as have we all) but things should be settled by the end of the week, so work will restart. As you know, we're not getting funding from the University, so any ideas you may have for sponsorship will be welcome. Please get in touch with the editors with them, or with me.

All right, let's be having you

Who wrote the story where the ragpicker turns out to be Shiva (Bhooter Raja, I think)
Also the Great Haraldo had a story I marked WIP which I now can't remember. Send!!!!! And all the rest of you too!

Christopher Merrill

We had a visit from Professor Christopher Merrill on Friday.

Chris Merrill runs America's coolest writing programme, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He writes poetry and non-fiction, and he's written on soccer, the Balkan wars, and secretive Eastern orthodox monasteries.

On Friday, he spoke about his life as a writer, including how it felt to be stuck in a basement in Croatia being blitzed by the Serbs, and what to do if you're targeted by a sniper while on the way to a film festival. He also told us that according to the Serbs, the only unbiased journalists in the country were Indians(!) He reminisced about his friend Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri poet who (among other things) introduced the proper ghazal to America.

Chris's talk was followed by a lively interactive session. At the end of the session, Gautam Datta, an engineer based in New Jersey, read a poem in Bangla and his translation of one of Chris's English pieces.

Way-hay! We have mun-nay!

ALERT!!!!
We have been granted funding by the Seed Money fund to publish WIPlash. Everyone who hasn't yet sent me their stuff DO SO NOW. This includes anything I may have marked as suitable for WIP. Email of soft copy is best. If you don't have a comp, give it to me to be typeset. We will return pieces to be edited if they need polishing, or we may edit ourselves in consultation with authors. We are looking at about 80 pages of text and 20 of illustration. Deadline for texts is Feb 20th. NO EXTENSION!

we're also looking for illustrators for the stories and a cover designer. cover will be monochrome, can be grayscale. Apply to Teleute or Wiz of Az or comment this post.

A reminder: Caferati deadline on 4th

Cross posted from http://www.caferati.com/contests/


Contests
Caferati runs contests for writers directly, and in collaboration with other organisations. This page gives you updates on the latest. (You could also subscribe to our Contests newsletter to get alerts in your inbox.)

Writing contests at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007

We are managing four contests for the Literature and Writing section of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007.

Go straight through to the individual contest pages for details.

SMS Poetry — 160-character poetry — About | Submit
Flash Fiction — very short stories — About | Submit
Graphic Flash — very short stories, told with visuals — About | Submit
Poetry Slam — performance poetry, live and head-to-head — About | Submit
All these contests are open to anyone, anywhere. However, the Poetry Slam is a live event at the Festival, so it’s a bit pointless to submit if you live elsewhere, unless you are prepared to travel to Kala Ghoda for the event at your own expense, if you are selected.

The deadline for all of them is midnight, IST, 4th February, 2007.

WriterSpeak: ASU-JU students of creative writing share thoughts

The audio-visual room of the Jadavpur University's English department had a buzz of creative energy around it on the 11th of this month. The reason? Well it was a day that creative writers across two countries were meeting and sharing their innermost self-doubts and queries about the art, craft, poetics and politics of taking up the pen (or the keyboard as in most cases these days) for creative purposes. At this rare collection of creative minds were present the well-known American novelist and professor of creative writing – Melissa Pritchard – along with five of her MFA students from Arizona State University, and a room-full of eager JU students of English – all aspiring to greater creative output. Moderating for the event was Rimi B. Chatterjee – a young lecturer of the English Department and a published author of creative fiction in her own right. Kalam: Margins Write was the point of connection between the two

Although the interaction began with usual nervousness of such first meetings, the sheer warmth of both parties involved broke the ice. The students of ASU introduced themselves with humour and candor. There was the rather reticent Darcy, who was honest about her own doubts as an aspiring writer in the initial stages of coming to understand one’s creativity at one’s own pace, as well as her discomfort with the mushrooming of writing workshops, which in her opinion are not always the best thing to participate in. Such workshops could be harmful in two ways – one was that since such workshops involve extensive reading of works just produced so they are open to scathing criticism which could destroy the fragile confidence of the writer who is starting out with her raw, unedited work. Rimi di echoed her views as she also identified with the fear of showing raw, unedited work in the early stages of being a writer. She specified that if she were offered a course like WIP in her college, then most probably she would not have taken it up, which is why she never pushes students to take the course if they have any doubt in their mind.

The second danger, which all the ASU writers and Melissa pointed out in unison, was that of “getting addicted” to these ubiquitous workshops resulting in the loss of one’s own individual voice in the mélange of voices. Although the workshops helped the author with useful critique by a selected peer group, Melissa also brought to attention that “at some time you have to face the page alone”. For this it is essential to find one’s own voice – for which it is imperative to spend a lot of time on your own, maybe traveling or just thinking while looking through the windows of a café.

Melissa was emphatic in her stress on finding one’s voice. The anxiety of influence of the writers we admire and feel inadequate to, has a solution to it. She said that the best way to read authors that you admire is to “learn from them, try to unpack the writer’s work so as to find out what it is exactly you like about the author – read like a taxonomist! You can’t let yourself silence yourself.” Michael, another perceptive student of ASU also reiterated the point by saying that maybe one cannot write exactly like the writer one admires so much but one can find out the reason for that admiration and put it to good use. It’s actually the spirit with which the Bronte represents her times in Wuthering Heights that one admires, so maybe one day the aspiring author could engage with her times in a similar spirited way instead of getting intimidated by the author.

Subhodeep Paul, a final-year MPhil student of Jadavpur University and an aspiring poet and novelist, raised some interesting questions. He spoke about the dual roles of the academic and writer that writers in India usually have to face (this reaffirmed by Rimi di's hilarious comment that “writers have to survive in India hiding deep under the cover of an academic!”). He expressed his dilemma about the time and financial constraint at pursuing a three-year MFA program and queried the possibility of an exchange programme between the students and faculty of JU and ASU.
His query met with an enthusiastic response by Melissa Pritchard who expressed the distinct possibility of such partnerships in the future. She said that her university was very eager for such global partnerships – “global interaction is enrichment on both sides.” Michael was helpful in his advice that there were more than 400 such MFA programs all over the USA that could offer a lot of choice in terms of the cost and the number of course years. Max pointed out the possibility of self-financing through the attainment of teaching assistantships.

Next came the dreaded subject of finding a publisher. There was a simultaneous sense of despair among all the authors with Michael coming up with “we still haven’t figured that out yet!” resulting in the room being in splits with laughter. Michael pointed to Melissa as being the only one who was qualified enough to answer that question, having published six or seven novels to her credit. Melissa was forthcoming about her stories of starting up as a writer. Melissa was a housewife to begin with, who nurtured her love of fiction through writing stories and sending it to various magazines.

At around 30 she realized that she still hadn’t started to work on her lifelong dream of being a writer but after the revelation she worked hard to teach herself the art of writing a novel or story. After many rejections – at the rate of one every afternoon, Melissa started to become depressed and decided that she was not writing for the sake of publication – she was writing for herself only. Once she was at peace with this realization, the acceptance letters started to pour in and one day (while busy at the mundane task of doing laundry at the basement) she received a phone call saying that she had won an award for her story.

Although this sounds like some sort of fairy-tale, there is a distinct lesson to learn. Melissa believes that a writer has to have two things – first to focus on the work itself and reach the perfection that it can and secondly be stubborn enough to carry on despite loads of rejection letters piling up. Ultimately writing should come from an ego-less state where it doesn’t matter who is reading the work. It is important to balance the humility with the desire to publish. Another way of dealing with the issue of publishing is to find a champion for your work – not everyone will like what you write – so it is important to have a champion with similar sensibilities. In a similar vein, a writer could also observe the publishers of her/his favourite authors. That way, publishers with similar sensibilities could publish similar work.
The students of Pritchard like Aimee and Michael also suggested publishing on the Internet. Michael has been regularly sending his stories to English magazines on the Internet and it is a done and an “in” thing these days to do that.

The other valid question, which found many heads nodding to it at the same time, was the question of constructive revision of the creative work, which usually comes out in a steady flow of emotion or passion. A first-year student of JU was concerned about his inability to go back to his work once he had finished it in one flow. The ASU writers had quite a few helpful pointers regarding this particular problem.

Tina (who is a poet herself): It is different for poetry. When you go back you have to see it with a critical eye. With time when you go back to it a month later, then you should be able to edit while you’re writing.

Melissa: You should develop a support community instead of a teardown community – it is very important to do that. Also it is about being honest. You are your own laboratory for characters. There are different motives and mixed emotions that you have felt and they become the material for your characters as well. So your characters can be really complex. The writer is often thrown into challenges – “am I being honest?” is a question you are constantly asking yourself. Sometimes you also grow out of your previous writing.

Aimee: I am very attached to my writing so it usually takes a very long time for me to come back for revising and editing it!

Darcy: I’m very self-critical – everyone has a different way to go about it. The more I write, the less time I need to set it aside. It is important to try and find out what was most truthful about it – the essence of the piece. An MFA is not the only way to start writing and revising your work – try to find two or three readers that you trust and ask them to read your work.

Max: Earlier when I used to write, it was more important for me to get on to the next piece, but as I’m revising my novel now, I see how important it is to go back to your earlier writing and go into the depth of it.

Talking of voices, Melissa suddenly came up with a surprising query – are stories still important? This led to a discussion on how stories are universal and can cut across cultures. It allows everyone to have a voice. The power to tell stories of our contemporary times is the enduring power of artists. And Rimi di added that sometimes the age at which one begins to actually pen down what one has inside could also be an important thing. For example it was only after she turned 30 that she could finally pull a gear on all that she had been meaning to write since her early twenties. Everyone has their own pace at which they write - a lot of it is a process, which includes thinking and could take a long time to find final expression.

The interaction ended with the distribution of the published magazine of original stories by the first batch of Rimi di’s Writing In Practice (WIP) course at Jadavpur University’s English Department.

The power to tell stories is a unique and universal power at the same time. This is what Kalam: margins write has always believed in and through more of such cross-cultural literary interactions we hope to continue executing our beliefs into action. Here's hoping Kalam, ASU's Piper Centre and JU's WIP course get more such opportunities to get together and brainstorm!

The ASU Meet on 11 January 2007

The meet with the ASU team went off well, thanks to our very own Pooja and Bishan of Kalam. Professor Pritchard and her students spent an interesting morning sharing their experiences with JU students, and a great time was had by all. If you were there, or even if you couldn't make it, here is a link to their place, the Virginia G. Piper Centre for Creative Writingat Arizona State University. You will find there a lot of resources and facts relating to their programmes.

Check out their online book club run by Aimee Baker.


Also check out Kalam and their work.

Vikram Chandra tells it like it is

If you're feeling lost as to how to be an Indian writer in this increasingly confusing world, be not afraid, Vikram Chandra will guide you through the wilderness and bring you the laughter of Borges-bhai.

Arizona State University team

Here is a potted biography of Professor Melissa Pritchard of Arizona State University, courtesy Bishan Samaddar of Kalam.
Melissa Pritchard
Professor of English and Women's Studies at Arizona State University, Melissa Pritchard is the nationally acclaimed author of three short story collections: Spirit Seizures, The Instinct for Bliss, and Disappearing Ingenue; three novels: Phoenix, Selene of the Spirits, and Late Bloomer; and a biography: Devotedly Always, Virginia: The Life of Virginia Galvin Piper. A recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, the James Phelan Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best fiction by an American woman and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Writers Voice YMCA, and Brown University's Howard Foundation, Pritchard's fiction has appeared widely in such literary journals as: The Southern Review, Boulevard, Open City, The Gettysburg Review, Conjunctions, and The Paris Review. Her stories are frequently cited and reprinted in anthologies such as: Pushcart Prize XX and XXVI; Prize Stories: The O Henry Awards; Best American Short Stories; The Prentice Hall Anthology of Women's Literature; Best of the West; Great Contemporary Ghost Stories; Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood; and American Gothic Tales, as well as college textbooks such as: Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers; Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft; and A Garden of Forking Paths: An Anthology for Creative Writers.
She has received the Claudia Ortese Memorial Lecture Prize in North American Literature from the University of Florence and her fiction has been translated into Spanish and Italian. Her novel Selene of the Spirits was selected for the Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” series and her short story collection, Disappearing Ingenue, featured in Doubleday's “Fiction for the Rest of Us” series, was chosen by Alan Cheuse for National Public Radio's 2002 Annual Summer Reading List. Her latest novel Late Bloomer, published by Doubleday in 2004, has been called “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “ravishing” by Vanity Fair magazine, and was named a 2004 Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She is at work on a new collection of stories, The Odditorium.
Nominated for the 2005 Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Award by Arizona State University's Commission on the Status of Women, Pritchard is Director of Creative Partnerships for the Daywalka Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern day slavery. Pritchard is currently working to establish outreach projects with the Phoenix Children's Hospital and Daywalka's Kalam project, for the MFA Program at ASU where she has taught since 1992. She is also serving as story consultant for a documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Her team comprises Michael Green, Max Doty, Tina Hammerton, Darcy Courteaux and Aimee Baker.

2006 End sem Question Paper

Here is the 2006 End sem question paper:

1. Complete this dialogue.

‘Why have you called me here?’ she asked, unable any longer to bear my silence.

‘Haven’t you guessed?’ I fingered the edge of the file I was carrying. Surely she had recognised it, understood why I was meeting her like this. ‘Malavika, how long has this been going on?’

She frowned. ‘You mean the financial irregularities? Since August, I guess. At any rate, it can’t have been longer than that.’

I put the file down on top of the water cooler and drew myself a glass. ‘Why did you take so long to tell me?’

‘I wanted to be sure.’

‘Who were you protecting?’

It seemed as if a shutter fell inside her face. Her lips thinned; she turned her face away and looked out of the floor-length window, her eyes tracing the line of the sea in the distance. I noticed the polish on one of her nails was chipped. ‘No one.’

2. Write a full story (not a plot outline) taking one element each from each column of this story grid.

Character	Place	Thing	Emotion
Actress	Desert	Letter	Bitterness
Miner	Nuclear shelter	Compass	Wonder
Politician	Beauty parlour	Knife	Satisfaction
Poet	Farm	Shoe	Ambition

3. Here is the back-story of a character. Write a ‘front story’ (starting from this point in time) about him. You may make up any additional people or incidents.

Shantanu Mahajan is 43 years old. He’s a successful engineer with a construction company specialising in city planning. He grew up in Nasik in a middle class family; his father was the headmaster of a boys’ school and his mother a tribal from the interior of Madhya Pradesh, who went to school on a government scholarship and became a teacher of physics. Mahajan, an only child, is immensely proud of his mother, but also a bit defensive about her. When he went to his father’s school, he was acutely aware that it was his father’s status that prevented the boys from teasing him about her. He lives in Mumbai, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city is a relief; he’s happy there but not very socially active, loves his work and relaxes by watching national geographic and going for hikes in the Western Ghats, which he loves. He belongs to a hiking club and has a photoblog of digital pictures he’s taken in the hills. But to his parents’ eternal grief he never married: he wasn’t good at finding anyone for himself, and caste considerations prevented them from finding a match for him. Now he’s comfortably settled, spends moderately on fine wines and his flat in Bandra, his pride and joy. Only once in a while, especially after his parents visit, he regrets the way his life has turned out and wonders if it could have been different.

4. Rewrite this descriptive passage, introducing colour and atmosphere:

The alley is cobbled. The houses on either side are high. Narrow windows occasionally look out onto it, but mostly the walls are blank and dirty. Here and there graffiti and torn posters can be seen. A stray donkey has made its home near the garbage dump at the end where it munches on kitchen waste and discarded leaves. The alley winds behind the houses, giving access to back doors where servants, traders and workers enter and leave the grand yet ancient buildings. From this side, it’s hard to recognise where one house ends and the other begins, although the fronts are painted in different colours and designs. If you don’t know where the alley opens, it’s easy to miss it altogether.

5. Here is a plot outline. Complete it and write a story based on it.

The fort is extremely old, most of its roofs decayed and gone. It frowns over the valley of Suvarnam. Bhanwarlal, the old master, is dying, but he has no children and only a young wife of seventeen years whom he married in the spring. She weeps bitterly, but no one pays her any attention. When he’s been carried to the river and burned with the last of the fort’s firewood, she comes back in her white sari and bars the door behind her. The valley and its village forget about her, except Munni Dai, who brought her here and is resigned to staying with her. The two women sit together, preparing their meagre meals and passing the time each day till the sun goes down. Sometimes Munni Dai scolds the young girl, saying no one in this day and age behaves like this, but she always calms down and goes back to cleaning the rice. Until one day …

Bonus Bootleg Track!

Some questions I didn’t use

1. This is the beginning of a story outline. Complete it. You may introduce one or two additional characters.

Rama is a spoilt rich girl who thinks she can have everything. Her parents have brought her up with the best of everything, and she’s used to always getting her way. Then she’s caught cheating in her board selection tests, using a state-of-the-art WAP mobile phone to download answers from the internet. She’s expelled from school. When her parents go to plead for her, the principal agrees to take her back, on one condition: she must earn the price of the phone, Rs 15,000, with her own labours.

[Describe what happens after that.]

2. Create a plot outline choosing one emotion, object, character or place from each of the following sets and weaving it into the outline. You may add other elements and characters as necessary, but the four things you choose must figure prominently. State your four choices at the head of your answer.

Character	Place	Emotion	Object
A policewoman	A condemned house	Rage	Cellphone
A cook	A shopping mall	Sorrow	Rolling pin
A fisherman	A train compartment	Anticipation	Mirror
A painter	A riverbank	Gratititude	Ball

3. Complete any one of the following pieces of dialogue:

a. ‘What are we going to do?’ he cried in despair.

‘You ask me now?’ Rajlakshmi’s eye blazed. ‘When all our wealth has already been poured by you down the throat of that landlord, just because you can’t hold your liquor?’

Haranath hung his head. ‘Yes, there’s a devil in me, I know. That devil would drink the sea and kill me with the salt. But the deed is done, Raji, our land is gone, and now we must try to survive it. I am sorry.’
‘Will your sorry give my children education, or put food in their hollow bellies?’

‘I wish I could wring out of me all the liquor I’ve drunk,’ Haranath moaned, ‘and be a man again.’

‘Well you can’t,’ she said, and crossed her arms, ‘so you’d better start thinking fast.’

‘Where shall we go?’ he asked, and looked with fearful eyes at the rail track across the distant green fields.

b. ‘That’s interesting,’ she said softly.

‘What is?’ he asked, idly turning the pages of a magazine.

‘The Agarwals have called the painters in. Maybe at last they’re going to get that ugly daughter of theirs married off.’

He looked interested. ‘You mean Reshma? How old is she now?’

‘Twenty nine.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘The girl’s been twenty nine for the past five years.’

He crossed the room to join her at the window. ‘What a lot of activity. You know, you could be right.’

‘Hmmm. I wonder if they know she’s been secretly meeting that Rajat for years.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve just found out.’

4. Rewrite any one of these paragraphs, giving the scene emotional colour. Invent the details you need to flesh out the scene, such as colours, sounds, sights, objects, activity, people and animals, smells etc. but do not introduce a plot or principal characters.

There is a busy road leading from the station. On one side is a market. On the other there is a pond. By the pond women wash clothes and pots. There are children and stray dogs in the field beyond the market. Many fruiting and flowering trees grow around the spot. The houses are mostly two-storeyed with verandahs. People watch the bustle from them.

There is a slick mall on the corner. Lots of people shop there, or pass the time. There are often traffic jams outside. All kinds of shops fill the mall. In the middle, there is a kids’ playground. On the top floor, there is a restaurant where they often have live music. There are also stalls in the middle, one for icecream and one for rolls. Young people hang out there.

Kalam: Margins Write and University of Arizona meeting

On either Thursday Jan 11 or Friday Jan 12, 2007 (depending on when our American friends get in) there's going to be a meeting in the AV Room with some students and a professor of creative writing from Arizona State University. This comes to us courtesy Kalam: Margins Write (an NGO) . I'll need 5-10 people, preferably past and present WIPers but other creative people also welcome, to come sign up with me beforehand. When we meet in the new year is fine.

Upgrade to Beta ... Ooops!

Calling all members

I've just upgraded the blog to the Blogger beta platform, which is why your names have disappeared from the sidebar. However, you all still have permission to post to this blog. You just have to log in to blogger in beta (easy if you have a google account) and your name will magically reappear. Hopefully this upgrade will remove some of the more irritating features of the blogger platform.

Job offer and call for submissions

Crossposted from Caferati listings
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1. Journalists Wanted
for a new Bombay magazine
Wanted: Sub-editors / copy editors / Full-time journalists / writers / reporters. Also designers. A new magazine is being launched in Bombay. It is city-centric and will focus on celebrities. Obviously, they don't want to reveal more since the magazine isn't out yet. They're offering competitive salaries. And they would like to make it clear that this a 6 days a week job, and the work doesn't stop till the next issue is out. They're looking to put together a team by early December. (Our apologies for not posting this earlier. To apply, please email Suren Bhatia at surinATgmail.com
[Information courtesy: Rushina Munshaw - Ghildiyal of A Perfect Bitehttp://a-perfect-bite.blogspot.com/]
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2. Call for submissions; Writer's Bloc Festival
Rage Productions (Rahul da Cunha, Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel) is organising Writer's Bloc, a festival of plays written by new writers, to be staged at Prithvi (Jan 9th-21st) and NCPA (Jan 23rd-Feb 4th). The festival is a culmination of a year-long process, in conjuction with the Royal Court Theatre London, of conducting workshops for new playwrights to help them complete a full-length play. Part of the programme is a section called the Platform Performances that will precede each of the Prithvi shows. These will be held at 8 pm each day, Jan 9th-21st. In keeping with the festival theme, each Platform performance will be a 20-min reading of original writing in any form: poetry, short fiction, an except from long fiction, skit, play except, song, or a combination of all these. Actors are available to read out/enact pieces, if required. (But writers may choose to read their own work.) If you'd like to submit your original writing to be read, please mail the piece(s) to Niloufer Sagar at nilousaATgmail.com. RAGE needs to finalise the platform listings by the end of this week. So hurry!
[Information courtesy Mukul Chadda]
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Until next time, then.
May your muses treat you with kind, tender care.
Thank you
Manisha Lakhe, Annie Zaidi, Peter Griffin
(Feedback welcome at editors at caferati dot com.) And please keep those suggestions coming in. We need them!)